


Looking for Tank

by Rebelwerewolf



Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Alcohol, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Enemies to Lovers, Fluff and Angst, Gaming, Innuendo, M/M, MMORPGs, Minor Character(s), Mistaken Identity, Nerdiness, Tacos, Trans Character
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-01
Updated: 2016-06-01
Packaged: 2018-07-11 13:29:55
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 11,987
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7053652
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rebelwerewolf/pseuds/Rebelwerewolf
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Hux is the perfectionist raid leader for the hardcore raiding guild The First Order. Ben, known in-game as KyloRen, is the tantrum-prone tank who is a constant thorn in Hux's side. Their objective is to obtain the unique weapon Starkiller, a reward for the first guild to complete the game's newest dungeon.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Date

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _You're being too picky,_ Hux chided himself. _What did you expect, being 34 and single? All the good ones have been taken, and at least this one is easy on the eyes._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Art by [allantiee](http://allantieeart.tumblr.com/). I love it so much!!
> 
> Technically, it's a scene from a later chapter, but it's not a spoiler.

 

Hux checked his watch and cast a long, sweeping look across the crowded restaurant. He sighed. It was almost a quarter past six, and his internet date had yet to show. He refilled his Riesling and resolved to order his meal the next time the waiter stopped by.

_To be early is to be on time, to be on time is to be late, and late is unacceptable!_ Hux heard his father's voice in his head every time he recited this mantra, which was often. In fact, he had said it just this morning at the daily 8 AM meeting that he had instated upon his recent promotion to Director of Engineering. A vein throbbed in his head as he pondered whether he was becoming his father.

Thankfully, his thoughts were interrupted by a tall, broad-shouldered man clad in a black trench coat. As the man removed his motorcycle helmet and shook out his shaggy, dark hair, Hux recognized him as _Ben, 29_ , his internet date. In contrast to his formidable physique, Ben's face looked young and vulnerable, with honey-colored eyes, full lips, and dimples when he smiled. Hux struggled to reconcile the visual incongruity.

"Are you Hux?" Ben asked in a deep but quiet voice. Hux stood, forced a smile, and extended his hand as if to a business associate.

"Ben, I presume."

"Oh, come on," Ben scoffed at the overly formal gesture and pulled Hux into a bear hug. "This isn't some board meeting. This is a date!" His voice was resonant now, and Hux was sure the entire restaurant could hear. Blushing brightly, he accepted the hug stiffly and patted Ben's back several times with one arm.

"And you're British," Ben gushed while holding Hux by the shoulders, seemingly oblivious to the other man's distress.

"Irish," Hux corrected sharply.

"That's hot." Ben accompanied this inane statement with a bite of his lower lip.

Hux couldn't help but shake his head and chuckle in disbelief that first, this beautiful man had called _him_ hot, and second, the same man acted like a teenager.

Ben cocked his head questioningly. "What's so funny?"

"N-nothing," Hux stuttered, internally groaning at his own awkwardness. "Uh, we should order something to eat." Smoothing his slacks, he sat back down in his chair and motioned for Ben to take the other.

Ben removed his coat and folded it over the back of his chair. Hux gaped. Underneath the coat, Ben was wearing a tight, black crop top emblazoned with a video game logo and black skinny jeans held up with suspenders. His midsection was on full display, and he was _shredded_. Hux counted Ben's abs, which flexed as he sat. The man had an 8-pack, which he had always assumed was physically impossible. Dueling emotions arose within him: arousal at the sight of so much well-muscled flesh, and revulsion that Ben had deemed his ridiculous outfit acceptable to wear in public.

"Enjoying the view?" Ben asked, raising a single eyebrow.

Hux bit his tongue and wracked his brain for something both tactful and appropriate to say. He decided the question was a trap and sidestepped it entirely. "Would you like some wine?" he responded instead.

"Nah," replied Ben, looking around for a waiter. "Gonna get myself a whiskey." Hux was impressed by his date's choice of beverage until Ben ordered a cinnamon whiskey on the rocks. It arrived with a skewered cherry garnish.

Before they had even ordered their entrees, Hux had disdainfully observed that Ben's table manners were abhorrent. He shoved entire slices of bread into his mouth, talked with his mouth full, and once even used his butter knife as floss.

_You're being too picky_ , Hux chided himself. _What did you expect, being 34 and single? All the good ones have been taken, and at least this one is easy on the eyes._

Hux was definitely rusty at dating, having mostly neglected his love life in favor of his career for the past decade, a decision that had paid off when he became the youngest Director of Engineering in the company's 62-year history. To combat his weakness in the romance arena, he had carefully researched first-date questions online. In the lull after they had both ordered dinner, he chose to open with, "So what's your passion?" He had read that this question was a better alternative to asking about someone's job.

Ben's hazel eyes shone brightly as he talked at length about the anime shows he enjoyed. Hux's green eyes glossed over as he heard overly-enthusiastic summaries of shows ranging from high school sports comedies to post-apocalyptic dramas featuring high-school aged mutants. Finally, Ben paused to take a sip of his cinnamon whiskey, and Hux managed to interrupt with the question he regretted not asking in the first place, "What do you do for a living?"

Ben's demeanor changed instantly, morphing from confidently happy to unsure. "Well... I work in a comic shop, but I guess you could say I'm... an indie game developer?" There was a long pause as he gazed down at his fork, a lock of dark brown hair falling across his pale cheek.

Hux slowly wetted his lips with his tongue as he waited to see if Ben had anything more to say. It was clear that the question had upset his date, and he was unsure how to salvage the situation or whether he should even try. For a moment, he entertained the notion that Ben would get up from the table and stalk away, leaving him to eat his dinner alone. Hux felt relief at this imagined scenario; it was draining to be around this unpredictable man while keeping up his professional demeanor.

To his surprise, Hux heard Ben's words from earlier echoing in his mind, _This isn't some board meeting. This is a date!_

Shoving his inhibitions aside, Hux reached across the table and, gently but hurriedly, tucked the loose strand of hair behind Ben's ear. His hand shook as he pulled away. Ben looked up from his place setting, mouth parted and eyes widening in amazement. "That's cool," Hux said, attempting to sound nonchalant. "What kind of games? I'm somewhat of a gamer myself." He smiled shyly, his eyes crinkling at the corners.

A mischievous grin spread across Ben's face, accentuating his dimples and causing him to half-wink. "I could have guessed," he teased. "You look like you're going for a job interview."

Hux frowned and cast a downward glance at his blue dress shirt, silver bow tie, and black slacks. "I _did_ come straight from work," he protested. Then he added accusatorily, "I thought it best to be punctual. Besides, have you looked at your own getup?"

"Relax," Ben chuckled, holding up a large hand. "I was joking. You know, nerd to nerd." Hux noticed that the other man's nails were painted with chipped black nail polish. "But what's wrong with my outfit?" Ben continued, leaning forward on the table.

_Does he truly think there is nothing wrong with wearing a midriff-baring t-shirt to a nice restaurant?_ Hux thought. "You're showing too much skin," he sniffed judgmentally. "It's inappropriate."

"What's inappropriate? My outfit or the way it makes you feel?" Ben lowered his voice to a conspiratorial whisper and rested his chin on the heel of one of his enormous hands.

Hux felt his cheeks flush bright red. He closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose, which helped calm him. "Let's get back to talking about gaming, at least while we're in public."

They spent the rest of the date conversing excitedly about games, Hux eating his shrimp pasta with perfect etiquette and Ben slurping spaghetti and shoving entire meatballs into his mouth. Ben was working on several projects but had never actually completed any, hence his hesitancy to call himself a game developer.

Almost knocking over Hux's wine glass while handing over his phone, Ben showed Hux some pixel art for his platformer project and admitted that he was having trouble teaching himself how to code. The artwork depicted a cape-wearing cyborg wielding a red laser sword, striding across the bridge of a spaceship. Hux thought it was pretty good and found himself offering to be Ben's programming teacher.

They discussed fond childhood memories of playing games on the original Nintendo and whether blowing on the cartridge really worked. Ben laughed as he recalled playing Rampage against his father. "I would always beat up his monster until it turned back into a little man, and then I'd eat him. I was an evil kid."

"That's nothing," Hux snorted. "When I played Duck Hunt, I always tried to shoot the dog." He shook his head wistfully. "That dog was so annoying."

By the time their checks were brought to the table, they were already planning their second date. "There's this great taco place on Central Street, just past the bridge that's been under construction forever," Ben suggested. "It's a hole in the wall, so there's not a lot of seating, but around this time of year they start opening up the patio if the weather's nice."

Hux hummed an affirmative while Ben scribbled furiously on his receipt before giving up on mental math and pulling his phone out of his pocket. With a startled expression, Ben stumbled backwards, upending his chair.

"Fuck!" he exclaimed, suddenly filled with rage. "That bastard's gonna have my ass if I'm late!" He snatched his helmet from under the table and jammed it onto his head, then stormed out of the restaurant while struggling into his long coat.

A bewildered Hux was left sitting alone at the table, and now the other patrons were either staring or pointedly _not_ staring while whispering in hushed tones. He kept his eyes affixed to the table, which was how he noticed a curious discrepancy in Ben's restaurant bill. Ben had written a generous tip, which Hux approved of, but in trying to add the two numbers together, he had somehow managed to come up with an amount several dollars short of the pre-tip total. Hux rolled his eyes and thought, _How could you have messed this up so badly?_

On his own bill, he left a large enough tip to cover the difference and wrote, “Sorry about my date. He's beautiful but a mess.”


	2. LFG

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Resistance was the unofficial rival guild to The First Order. They were the two best raiding guilds on the server, and both were focused on becoming the first guild to defeat Hosnian Prime. Beyond just having bragging rights, whoever first finished the dungeon would also earn a one-of-a-kind weapon called Starkiller.

_Stop thinking about that date. Stop thinking about Ben_ , Hux ordered himself as he drove home. By the time he had parked his black Audi A5 in his garage, it was a quarter past eight, and his mind was fully on the task ahead of him.

His expression softened when he saw the little orange face that peered around the corner of a bookshelf as he entered his home. "Hey Millie, sorry to keep you waiting," Hux cooed as he emptied a can of cat food into a small, gold-rimmed bowl. Millicent the cat was not nearly as sentimental and immediately busied herself with her dinner without giving Hux so much as a second glance.

Normally Hux would have changed into casual clothing, but he had been at the restaurant longer than he'd intended and was not about to be late to his next appointment. Instead he turned on the light in the spare bedroom he used for a home office and sank into the leather chair in front of his gaming console. He removed his bow tie, unbuttoned the top two buttons of his dress shirt, and rolled his sleeves up to his elbows. Then he placed the headset on his head carefully to avoid mussing his gelled hair and logged into the popular online game _Astral Strife_.

GeneralGinger the Elven Archer stood knee-deep in the freshly fallen snow on the edge of a deep crevasse, hooded red cloak billowing behind him. The slim figure was clad in a newly-crafted golden chainmail chest piece, knee-high leather boots, and flared-hip breeches dyed the same color as his cloak. On his shoulders sat enormous pauldrons designed to look like the paws of a massive ursine creature. Hux made sure that his character's appearance exuded excellence and nobility. After all, he was the raid leader of The First Order, the premiere guild on the server.

At the bottom of the fissure lay the entrance to Hosnian Prime, the game's newest dungeon and his guild's objective for the evening's raid. Several of his guild members were already waiting nearby, having heeded Hux's philosophy of timeliness. Dopheld Mitaka, Hux's friend from their college days, was playing his Human Cleric, which was unselfconsciously named Mitaka and even bore a passing physical resemblance to the real Dopheld, albeit wearing flowing, white cleric robes and a conical hat. Nicole, whom Hux had also known since college, was logged in as Phasma, an impossibly tall and broad Giant Knight with armor that looked to be carved out of a slab of gleaming silver.

Next to her stood Unamo, an Orc Engineer played by Nicole's girlfriend Tori. Unamo had been a last-minute replacement when the guild's top damage dealer had quit earlier in the week. Tori had primarily used the character for roleplaying, but Nicole had convinced her to join their guild. Hux clicked on Unamo to inspect her equipment and was pleasantly surprised to see that she was wearing a full set of endgame raiding armor, from her rocket boots to her gem-inlaid chest piece to her pauldrons made to look like spinning gears. Nicole must have spent the last few days helping her girlfriend obtain the armor, and Hux was thankful to have someone he could count on.

At precisely 8:30, Hux began sending group invitations to the guild members who would be participating in the raid. To his extreme annoyance, one player had not yet logged in. Of course it had to be KyloRen. The tank had been a constant thorn in Hux's side since The First Order had formed. He had unpredictable attendance and a bad attitude, but their guild leader, Snoke, would not even consider kicking him from the guild.

Hux, a man who always had a contingency plan, pondered his options. Players who could tank an end-game dungeon were difficult to come by in _Astral Strife._ "Phasma," he said in voice chat, "you'll be the main tank for tonight. I'll ask the rest of the server and try to find an off-tank. If I haven't found one by 8:45, Nines will off-tank." Hux always used players' in-game names even if he knew them in real life. He felt it contributed to a stronger sense of immersion and camaraderie by eliminating cliquishness.

"Yes sir," Phasma affirmed.

"Okay, I'll be right back," said Nines. Even though he was a Knight like Phasma, he normally wielded a vibro-mace and wore the more maneuverable Stormtrooper armor set instead of Phasma's shiny plate armor. Nines had planned on being a melee damage dealer this night and needed to grab his tanking armor and shield from his bank.

"Go ahead," Hux allowed. "Just make sure you're back at the instance before 8:45."

At exactly 8:45, Hux heard a soft pinging sound which meant someone he knew was logging into the game. He glanced at his chat log and saw KyloRen type an apology.

KyloRen: sry im late

KyloRen: invite 2 grp plz

The tank always typed, albeit poorly, and never spoke. _Probably because he's a child with a squeaky voice_ , thought Hux.

"8:30 means 8:30, Kylo," warned Hux. "This is the last time I will tolerate tardiness. I'll invite you to the group, but Phasma will be main tank."

KyloRen: fINE BIOTCH

Hux hissed through his teeth and congratulated himself for not responding to such pettiness.

Since KyloRen had not been proactive enough to log his character out at the dungeon entrance, another five minutes were wasted waiting for him. Hux had to admit that the chronically late Demon Monk cut a magnificent figure with his black-and-silver mask, curved purple horns, and flowing black robes. Even more impressive, he rode his two-headed wolf, an extremely rare mount rewarded to players who reached the top ranks of the player-vs-player tournament. KyloRen had obtained the mount prior to transferring to Hux's server, and Hux preferred to imagine that he hadn't earned the mount at all but instead had simply purchased someone else's account.

As The First Order approached the crowded dungeon entrance, Hux saw a familiar name plate hovering above a character he knew well. "That little shit!" he cursed aloud, hoping his headset didn't pick it up. It did. The guild's voice chat exploded as people noticed the Dwarven Archer clad in white armor artfully dyed red to emulate bloodstains.

"I thought EightSeven quit the game," said Slip, confused. The Druid had perhaps been EightSeven's best friend in the guild.

"He joined The Resistance. That traitor!" shouted Nines angrily.

The Resistance was the unofficial rival guild to The First Order. They were the two best raiding guilds on the server, and both were focused on becoming the first guild to defeat Hosnian Prime. Beyond just having bragging rights, whoever first finished the dungeon would also earn a one-of-a-kind weapon called Starkiller. Snoke, guild leader of The First Order, had decided that they would raid for several hours every night to accomplish this goal.

The dungeon itself was beautifully designed. Their raid group found themselves inside a series of icy caverns full of intricately carved stalagmites. The music also helped to set the mood, a mixture of soothing and haunting. They had a rough start, however, with several group members dying when KyloRen accidentally pulled an extra group of trash monsters. "Wait for my call before running toward enemies," Hux chastised.

KyloRen: ima tank

KyloRen: i can handel it

Hux groaned and pinched the bridge of his nose. This boy was insufferable. "You did not _handle it_. Both of our healers as well as Thanisson died, and we cannot afford to spend the whole night waiting for players to resurrect. I won't have you question my methods."

KyloRen: whatever

Thanisson was the one exception to Hux's self-imposed rule of using players' in-game names. The teenage boy was a walking stereotype who played a female Elven Wizard named Arwynnx, always clad in the most ridiculously revealing robes the game provided. Hux, a Lord of the Rings fan who had read all the books in his youth, long before the movies, refused to say "Arwynnx" out of principle. This time, though, thinking about the Elf's midriff-baring dress brought back not-unpleasant memories of Hux's date, and he found a little smile playing at the corners of his lips. Even KyloRen's annoying attitude couldn't completely destroy Hux's mood.


	3. The Wampa

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After the group stepped into the cavern, a cinematic began playing. It showed a gigantic, white furred beast ripping into a mangled corpse with its over-sized fangs. The words "The Wampa" appeared across the screen in stylized text.

Before long, they were standing in front of an enormous cavern with a ceiling several cathedrals high. A glowing pink border marked the entrance clearly as a boss fight.

Hux rallied his troops. "All right, this is our first time running this boss. Since we don't know what its attacks are, we need to prepare for every contingency. Phasma, you're on the boss. Kylo, you're on adds if there are any. This should go without saying, but I expect everyone to stay out of area attacks. And for goodness sake, keep voice chat and guild chat clear. We obviously won't defeat this boss on the first try, but we should have a strategy after this first attempt."

After the group stepped into the cavern, a cinematic began playing. It showed a gigantic, white furred beast ripping into a mangled corpse with its over-sized fangs. The words "The Wampa" appeared across the screen in stylized text. The cinematic ended with the camera zooming in on the wampa's bloodied mouth as it roared. The screen shook and then faded to black.

In front of the players stood the actual boss, towering and terrifying. Hux wasted no time in giving commands. "Phasma, tank him in a corner for now. KyloRen, build secondary aggro but keep an eye out for adds. Everyone else, spread out!"

Hux successfully executed a skill combination to launch a volley of arrows at the wampa before noticing the ground shaking around him. "Watch your feet!" he cried, lightly sidestepping away. Before he was even done with his sentence, a gigantic stalagmite exploded forth from the ground where he once stood. Someone cursed, and Hux saw a skull appear in the heads-up-display on top of Slip's health bar.

"S-sorry, General," Slip stuttered. "My game froze for a second."

"Do you want me to get him back up?" asked Mitaka.

"Don't waste your combat res. We'll just go as long as we can," replied Hux.

Moments later, to Hux's horror, the boss started clomping toward him. He checked his HUD, but his aggro was well below Phasma's. The wampa was not headed for him. Instead, it was headed for a large pile of tauntaun carcasses that had spawned in the middle of the room, just to Hux's left. As the group watched helplessly, the wampa fed on the carcasses and completely regained its health. Then it returned to attacking Phasma.

"Target the carcass pile the next time it spawns," Hux commanded. "It regenerates when it eats."

"It's untargetable," said Unamo. "But for some reason it looks like the bodies can be moved."

Hux dodged another stalagmite as it came crashing through the floor, and then it dawned on him. "The stalagmites," he whispered. Then, more loudly, he said, "All damage dealers, go one at a time, grab a tauntaun carcass, and put it at your feet."

His plan worked perfectly. When the next stalagmite attack occurred, the players dodged out of the way, and the carcasses were destroyed. He didn't have much time to revel in his genius strategy, though, as his screen suddenly started blinking red at the edges. This time, the boss really was headed for him. It was confirmed by the words that appeared on his screen, "The Wampa has targeted GeneralGinger."

Instead of running away, as his instincts told him to do, years of playing _Astral Strife_ had trained him to run toward Phasma in the hopes that the tank could regain the boss's attention. He stopped attacking entirely and used several abilities to try to diminish his aggro, but the wampa was laser-focused and refused to relent. "I have aggro," he called out. "I need a tank to pull this thing off me."

Phasma's reply was not encouraging. "I'm already top on the aggro list, but it's ignoring me." A quick glance at the HUD confirmed that she was right about having the highest aggro, but beyond that, the list looked wrong.

_Where is KyloRen?_ thought Hux. He found the monk several places lower on the list, behind Hux himself, Thanisson, and Mitaka. Then the wampa grabbed him in its wicked claws. The red tint bled over his entire screen, his health bar quickly depleted, and he was left looking at his lifeless corpse in the black-and-white tones signaling an in-game death. Hux sighed.

"Do you want me to get you back up?" asked Mitaka.

"No," said Hux. "Let's keep going as long as we can." In a way, it was good that GeneralGinger lay dead on the floor of the cavern because it allowed Hux to strategize about the battle without worrying about dying. He saw another pile of carcasses appear, and without him there to remove a tauntaun, the wampa was able to eat one of the carcasses and regain a sliver of health. Immediately afterward, however, came the targeted attack that had felled Hux earlier.

"The Wampa has targeted Arwynnx." Hux checked the aggro list, and sure enough, Thanisson was second on the list, just as Hux had been prior to his death. Thanisson, however, was not as composed as Hux had been and was running around the room hollering for help.

"Thanisson, be quiet," Hux chided. "The targeted attack seems unavoidable. You're going to die. But it looks like it falls on the second person on the aggro list. KyloRen, why are you so low on aggro?"

KyloRen: im dpsing

Hux grimaced. "You're supposed to be off-tanking."

KyloRen: theres no adds so im helping get boss down fastr

Hux groaned loudly and resisted the urge to smash his face against the keyboard. _Why do I have to be saddled with this imbecile?_ he thought. He managed to remain composed over voice chat and commanded KyloRen to keep secondary aggro on the boss. "I need the next targeted attack to go on you."

KyloRen did not respond, but from his rise in the aggro charts, it looked like the monk had complied. He was a whirling menace of dark robes, wielding a ridiculous bastard sword that boasted a crossguard with additional blades. _This game has the weirdest weapon designs. But it suits him because he's a ridiculous bastard,_ thought Hux with a slight smile at his own clever wordplay.

Hux was also pleased to find that his battle strategy was sound. After the pile of carcasses, the wampa again targeted the second player on the aggro list, which was KyloRen this time. "Okay, now just let him –"

He was rendered speechless by the sheer stupidity of KyloRen's next move. Prior to the wampa's attack, the monk used a special chant to make himself immune to all attacks. The wampa immediately targeted the next highest player on the aggro list, who was Mitaka, the only healer left alive. Mitaka did not remain alive for very long, and, without him to keep Phasma healed while she tanked the boss, the rest of the raid group was quickly demolished, leaving only KyloRen running around in his invulnerability bubble.

Hux had regained enough of his wits to chastise KyloRen. "Why did you waste your immunity there? I needed to see if you could survive the attack."

KyloRen: i survived

_Oh my goodness, he's so dumb._ "The point was to see if a high-health tank could survive the targeted attack without using immunity, and besides, you wiped the whole group."

KyloRen: u said 2st fight was just for startegy

KyloRen: *1st

Hux closed his eyes and rubbed his temples for a couple of seconds before continuing with the plan. "Never mind. We're ready for an actual attempt. How long of a cooldown is the immunity?"

KyloRen: 1 hour

Hux buried his face in his hands.

In the end, it took four more attempts before the wampa was defeated, causing a chest of loot to spawn. Inside the chest was a crafting recipe for chefs, a set of clockwork ninja stars, and a robe that boosted magical ability and health. Mitaka was the guild's chef, frequently preparing meals to raise the entire group's stats, so he received the recipe. The ninja stars could theoretically be wielded by an engineer, an archer, or a thief. However, most of the engineer's abilities depended on using a blaster, and most of the archer's abilities depending on having a bow and arrow, so it made the most sense to give the ninja stars to Zeroes, the group's thief.

The robe was a hotly contested item between the healers, the magical damage dealers, and, inexplicably, KyloRen. Hux tried to explain that the magical ability boost would be far more useful to the healers and casters.

KyloRen: im a monk i use robes and magic

Hux had a complicated mathematical system for distributing contested loot that took into account: 1. how much of an upgrade the item was over a player's current gear, 2. the last time each player received a loot item, 3. player attendance and raid performance, and 4. a dice roll randomly generated by the game to add some uncertainty. He forbid KyloRen from rolling on the loot, but of course, the petulant tank never followed directions and actually managed to roll a 100, the highest possible roll.

KyloRen: i win!! gimme robe

"I can't give you the robe, KyloRen," Hux tried to explain. "You weren't even supposed to roll on it because it's more of an upgrade for the healers and damage dealers."

KyloRen: wtffff i won roll

"You weren't supposed to roll," Hux repeated sternly. "The robe goes to Mitaka based on a highly mathematical loot distribution system."

KyloRen: wtttttttfffffffff he got the recippe already

KyloRen: its not fair

KyloRen: u just being an asshole

"Look, I won't have you insult me for what is standard procedure in this guild," Hux said. "You can roll on tank items."

KyloRen: fuck u give me robe or else

"Are you threatening me over a game?" Hux, exasperated, decided to ignore KyloRen and handed the robe to Mitaka. As soon as he did, KyloRen logged out.

Five minutes passed. Ten minutes passed. Twenty minutes passed. Hux realized that the annoying, petulant player must have logged out in protest and probably had no intention of logging back in. It was getting late, so he told the rest of the guild that the raid was over for the night. KyloRen always had a way of messing up his best laid plans.

Hux turned off his computer and set about his usual bedtime routine of putting on his pajamas, brushing his teeth, taking out his contact lenses, and –

His phone beeped with a new message as he was preparing to plug it into the charger and crawl under the covers. It was Snoke. Hux sighed once more and regretted having given his number to his guild leader, whom he had never even met, but Snoke had insisted.

Snoke: I need you to meet with KyloRen in person.

Hux: What? No.

Snoke: I'm giving you his number.

Hux: He probably doesn't even live in my city.

Snoke: You have the same area code. Meet with him tomorrow.

Hux: I already said no!

Snoke: Our strategy must change. KyloRen is integral to defeating Hosnian Prime.

Hux: Fine, give me his number.

Hux texted KyloRen with the name of the taco place that Ben had suggested and a time. He’d been craving tacos since the end of their date, and if he was going to have to deal with an unpleasant lunch with his petulant guild mate, at least he would allow himself the pleasure of eating tacos.

Flopping down on his bed next to Millicent, who opened a single green eye to glare at him, Hux decided to end the night on a happier note and checked his dating app. He fell asleep cuddling his phone, which displayed a photo of Ben, smiling and lifting his t-shirt to show off his washboard abs.


	4. Tacos

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hux stood patiently in line and ordered a trio of tacos: carnitas, barbacoa, and beef tongue.

It was just past noon when Hux arrived at Tacodana. Though he didn't relish the idea of being late, he had been caught up in a meeting with his direct reports and easily made the decision that work came first. It certainly wasn't because he was in no hurry at all to meet the childishly ill-tempered KyloRen.

Hux stood patiently in line and ordered a trio of tacos: carnitas, barbacoa, and beef tongue. Tacodana was as Ben had described the previous night, a hole in the wall with limited seating for the lunch crowd.

Thankfully the spring weather was just warm enough for the restaurant to have opened up outdoor seating, and as he walked out the front door, holding his tacos and an orange soda, he spied a familiar figure. Hux took a moment to admire the man's muscular back and powerful arms before walking over. "Ben, fancy meeting you here!"

Ben turned around in surprise. "Hux!" he cried happily as he rose from his chair. Hux had just enough time to set his food down on the table before he was enveloped in a bear hug. This time, he hugged Ben back, sinking into the embrace and taking a deep whiff of the other man's neck. "Sorry I ran off yesterday," Ben apologized without letting go. "I had fun. We should do it again sometime. I mean... If you want to."

Hux felt the man's voice more than he heard it, a pleasant rumble against his chest. Reluctantly, he broke away from the hug so he could look at Ben's beautiful honey-colored eyes as he responded. "Yes, I would like that. I never did get your number." As Ben recited his number, Hux noticed that it matched one already in his phone and felt suddenly cold despite the noon sunshine. "KyloRen," whispered the redhead in a voice barely audible.

"What?" Ben muttered, furrowing his brow.

"You're KyloRen," Hux repeated. "Of The First Order guild."

A look of realization and then horror crossed the taller man's handsome face. "And you're the General. Snoke sent you here to talk with me."

 _Fuck my life_ , thought Hux. _Why does the gorgeous man who just asked me on a second date have to be my internet nemesis?_ He took a deep breath and lowered himself into the patio chair across from where Ben had been sitting. "Well, we might as well get this over with."

Ben – _KyloRen_ – crossed his arms, an incredulous look on his face. "You're not serious, are you? It's just a game."

"I _am_ serious," Hux replied crisply. "And if you think it's just a game, perhaps you shouldn't be in the top raiding guild on the server."

Still refusing to sit, Ben placed his massive hands on the back of his chair and leaned into Hux's face. "Are _you_ threatening _me_ over a game now?"

Hux sneered back at him, the corner of his mouth twitching involuntarily. "No. Snoke alone retains the power to kick people out of the guild, but it would be a mistake to let our personal feelings get in the way of our goal."

"Personal feelings?" Ben cocked an eyebrow. "Tell me, General, what _are_ your personal feelings about me – no, about KyloRen?"

Hux's personal feelings about Ben and KyloRen could not be more different. "I thought you would be an acne-ridden teenager by the horrendous way you type and how often you throw tantrums," he said.

Ben scoffed. "You're exactly what I thought you'd be like – the 40-year-old-virgin."

"I'm 34," Hux corrected. "And I seem to recall you having a different opinion during dinner last night."

"Well _excuse_ me," said Ben with heavy sarcasm. "I didn't realize I was having dinner with General Tyrant himself." In a high-pitched, mimicking faux-English accent he added, "Do this, do that, only I can talk during fights, I decide who gets the loot."

"It's called being a raid leader," Hux replied through his teeth. "If you listened to me, we would be a lot more successful."

Ben stabbed at Hux with a finger. "And when was the last time _you_ listened to _anyone_ else? You're not the only one with ideas, but you think you're so much better than everyone else."

"Please, Ben," Hux said, exasperated. "You're taking this much too personally."

Ben’s tenuous thread of self-control snapped. He began shouting, " _I'm_ taking this too personally? You wouldn't even let me roll on the robe last night!"

People were starting to look in their direction. Hux stared into space past Ben's shoulder and wished he could disappear. _I hate when he makes a scene. It's so embarrassing._

Meanwhile, Ben's rant was just beginning. "You don't know the first thing about playing a monk as a tank! If you ever read the fucking forums, you would know that the new patch made magic a much more useful stat. All you ever do is hit one key to shoot arrows. A fucking toddler could do that! I don't know what Snoke sees in you. You're a piece of shit raid leader." With that, he spat on the floor to accentuate his insult.

Fed up with the situation, Hux rose from his chair. He stood nose-to-nose with Ben, unflinching in the face of the other man's wrath. "If you can't talk like a rational adult, then get out of my sight," he hissed coldly.

Ben balled his fists, and for a moment, Hux wondered if he was about to get punched. But instead, the seething, raven-haired man screamed and knocked over the table, upending both chairs and Hux's untouched lunch. Orange soda splashed all over Hux's business suit. Drenched, sticky, and hungry, he felt his anger reach a boiling point, but by the time he had recovered enough to speak, Ben had already stalked sullenly off the restaurant's patio and into the midday crowd.


	5. LAN Party

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "KyloRen," Hux started to say. He was met with three confused expressions. "From our guild," he clarified. The confused expressions stayed.
> 
> "I thought this was about your date –" Dopheld asked as the horrific realization dawned on him. "You went on a _date_ with _KyloRen_?"

Hux: LAN party tonight?

Nicole: new phone who dis

Hux: Fuck you, Nic.

Nicole: srsly no one uses periods at the end of a text. it makes you sound like a dick

Dopheld: I'm down

Nicole: i gotta check with tori

Hux: The raid is at 8, so let's meet at 7. I have some shit to tell you.

Dopheld: Is this about your date last night?

Hux: Sort of. Really need a drink to even think about it.

Nicole: ok she's in

Nicole: better be some good shit

That evening, the four friends were sprawled in Hux's living room eating ice cream and drinking wine. Hux relaxed on his recliner while Nicole and Tori leaned against each other at the far end of the couch. Dopheld curled up on the other end, Millicent purring in his lap as he gently stroked her ears.

 _How did Dopheld become the most well-adjusted out of all of us?_ Hux marveled with more pride than jealousy. Despite actually being slightly younger than Dopheld, Hux had always thought of the shorter man as a surrogate younger sibling. The two men and Nicole had met as the only queer kids in their freshman engineering class, where they became fast friends as a survival tactic. Well, Hux and Dopheld had latched onto the towering, muscular Nicole who never backed down from a fight, especially if her friends were being insulted. Hux had been much as he was now – thin and pale, studious to the point of being anti-social, and a tongue far too sharp for his own good.

Dopheld, however, had undergone a complete transformation. He had started college as a mousy, closeted transgender boy plagued with depression to the point where Hux and Nicole had to remind him about basic human functions like eating and showering. Over the past sixteen years – _had it really been that long?_ – they had watched him grow into a self-assured man who never forgot his loyalty to his friends. This loyalty was currently displayed by the cooler full of ice cream and wine that Dopheld had lugged over to Hux's house.

"So... are you gonna tell us what happened?" Nicole asked as Dopheld topped off everyone's wineglasses. Tori shot her a look, imploring her to tread lightly.

"KyloRen," Hux started to say. He was met with three confused expressions. "From our guild," he clarified. The confused expressions stayed.

"I thought this was about your date –" Dopheld asked as the horrific realization dawned on him. "You went on a _date_ with _KyloRen_?"

Hux set his bowl of rocky road ice cream down on the coffee table, closed his eyes, and massaged his temples. "Yes." He saw Nicole preparing to speak, _probably a witty insult_ , and quickly continued. "But I didn't know it was him. He was just some guy I met on an app, and then Snoke told us –"

At this point, Nicole cut him off despite Tori's attempt to hold her back. "You told our _guild leader_ that you were dating KyloRen?"

"No!" Hux barked, scrunching his eyebrows in frustration. "Just... just let me start over." He gulped down his entire glass of wine, took a deep breath, and began again. "Last night, before the dungeon, I went on a date with a guy named Ben. It went... better than expected." He shrugged noncommittally.

"Was he _cute_?" Nicole teased. Tori swatted at her girlfriend's thigh.

Hux rolled his eyes. "Actually, he was. He had nice muscle definition, but that's beside the point. As you all had the misfortune of witnessing, KyloRen behaved atrociously yesterday. Afterward, Snoke suggested that we meet in person to..." He cleared his throat. "... resolve our differences."

Nicole grinned mischievously. "Snoke ships it!"

Dopheld was unable to hold in his laughter and sprayed wine directly into Hux's face. "Sorry," he muttered between coughs.

Hux gave him a stern glare, but the effect was lessened by the redhead using his sleeve to wipe the liquid from his face. "If you got a drop on the couch, I’d make you recondition the leather," he threatened jokingly.

"So? Did you meet with KyloRen?" Nicole prodded, eager to hear more of the juicy tale.

"Yes, I met him for lunch," admitted Hux. "And as my god-awful luck would have it, KyloRen and Ben are the same person." He groaned loudly and ran a hand through his hair, messing up the carefully gelled strands. "We argued, he threw my lunch at me and stormed off, and I don't even know if he'll show for tonight's dungeon. It's a disaster."

"You'll figure something out," Dopheld said encouragingly. "You always do. What about putting Nines on off-tank? We'll find a damage dealer in server chat."

Hux shook his head. "No, that won't work. Nines doesn't have the gear for it. You saw how hard the wampa was hitting last night. We have no idea what the other bosses are like."

"So we're screwed unless your little boyfriend shows up?" asked Nicole.

"Wow, so many things wrong with that question," Hux replied. "He's not my boyfriend, and he's certainly not little. He's at least as tall as you and probably 200 pounds of solid muscle."

"Someone's got a crush..." Nicole said in a sing-song voice.

"I do not!" protested Hux. "KyloRen is the worst thing that's happened to me or The First Order."

* * *

 

To Hux's immense surprise, KyloRen showed up to the raid on time that night. Hux muted his mic to complain to his friends, who had set up their computers on his dining table. "It's almost worse that he's here. Knowing how immature he is, he's probably actively thinking of ways to screw us up."

The raiding party found themselves descending further underground after exiting through a small tunnel at the back of the wampa's cavern. They cleared several packs of trash mobs and reached an underground lake so large that the other shore could not be seen. At the edge of the enormous body of water sat several submersible pods.

Before Hux could speak, a deep, unfamiliar voice boomed out orders. "There's five pods, so that's two people per pod. Pick a pod. Let's do this!" Actually, the voice _did_ sound familiar, despite the terrible quality of the player's microphone. It could be none other than Ben.

"Don't listen to him!" Hux commanded hurriedly. "We need to –"

"Relax, General. You're in my pod. I'll take good care of you," came Ben's resonant voice again.

"No," Hux stated firmly. "The healers and the tanks will pair up, so Kylo, you're with Mitaka."

"Uh... can I not?" asked Dopheld from across the table, remembering to mute his mic. "I don't want to get between you and your... uh... whatever he is."

"KyloRen and I are not anything!" Hux bellowed. He didn't remember to mute his mic, having imbibed a bit too heavily. Nicole snickered as Hux flushed the same bright red as his hair. "Not anything this boss should mess with," Hux added, pathetically trying to salvage the situation.

"Does that mean you're riding in my pod, General?" came Ben's dulcet tones.

Hux sighed. Really, he had gotten himself into this pickle. "Yes," he relented. "It's just the first run, so we'll switch it up as the strategy requires. Phasma, you're with... oh fuck it. Just grab a friend and a pod." Hux ran his hand through his hair again and motioned for Dopheld to pass him the wine bottle.

Dopheld turned to look at Nicole and Tori for help, his eyes wide. Tori shook her head slightly, but Nicole reached out one long arm and plunked the bottle directly in front of Hux. Hux thought about drinking straight from the bottle for longer than he would ever admit, but ultimately his senses of decorum and disgust prompted him to pour the white wine in a glass.

GeneralGinger tucked himself into the submersible next to KyloRen, and it felt oddly intimate. The cut scene was not as detailed as the one from the previous night. The words "The Bottomless Lake" appeared on the screen while fish swam around in the background. Then it was just the two of them, sinking deeper and deeper into the unknown depths of the lake.

The fish appeared out of nowhere, and it was enormous. Its giant jaws fit neatly around the submersible and shook it like Millicent with one of her toys. "We have giant fish aggro," said Hux, stifling a drunken giggle after processing the absurdity of his statement. He looked at his action bar, and everything was unfamiliar. Gone were the keybinds that allowed him to shoot his bow. In their place was a set of controls for piloting the submersible.

"Can you escape?" asked Snoke, unamused.

 _Shit, he knows I'm drunk_ , thought Hux. _The man is practically a mind reader._

"We need a pilot!" yelped Ben.

"We've got one!" responded Hux as he clicked a random control, which resulted in firing the sideways thrusters. The little submersible shot out of the fish's maw and collided with the craft holding Phasma and Mitaka. The monstrous fish circled both ships as if trying to decide which to attack. Instead, it summoned a whirlpool effect that rendered both ships helpless.

"He's coming for us!" Thanisson shouted.

 _This is a mess_ , thought Hux. _And it's all KyloRen's fault_. To Hux's surprise, the next voice that spoke up was a soft-spoken but authoritative baritone. _KyloRen – no_ – Ben.

"I need everyone to tell me what controls their ship has."

 _That's useless_ , thought Hux. _The ships all have two tilt axes and two movement axes_. He was about to say so when the replies started pouring in.

Thanisson and Unamo's ship had the wizard's cloaking and magic missile spells combined with the engineer's detonation and robot abilities. Phasma and Mitaka's ship had tanking and healing abilities. It seemed each submersible had a combination of abilities from the passengers' classes. The player on the left was the designated pilot, and the one on the right was the designated gunner. _Damned American game designers_.

"We'll main tank this one," said Ben. "We have ice traps, explosive arrows, force shield, and meditation, so we should be able to hold aggro and stay alive. Keep our submarine healed."

Hux sent Ben a private chat.

whisper from GeneralGinger: Oh, so we're a we now?

whisper from KyloRen: ;)))))

Hux was half hoping that Ben's strategy would fail just so he could continue to feel a sense of smug superiority, but it worked well enough that, even after the first wipe, Hux thought it could be retried.

"Round two, everyone. Same ships, or switch it up if that's what you're into," Hux slurred.

"I kind of liked being in a ship with you," Ben teased. Hux blushed, and his entire table of friends burst out in laughter.

This time, the group managed to damage the fish down to half health. Hux had gotten used to the view of the fish's jaws snapping just out of reach of their submersible, but suddenly there was an eyeball filling his entire screen. Then, there was a wall that appeared to be made of scales. It wasn't until the wall passed him by that Hux realized that it was actually a fish so large that it ate the fish that was trying to eat the submersibles.

"There's always a bigger fish," Mitaka whispered in awe. A chest of loot appeared floating in the water, signifying a successful end to the boss fight.

The part of Hux that was a rational and fair leader liked Ben more for his positive influence on the night's raid. The part of Hux that was wary of emotional attachment hated Ben for making Hux _feel_. That night, after his friends had left and Hux was lying in bed, he guiltily pulled up photos of Ben on his phone and imagined falling asleep next to him.


	6. The Resistance

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Let me finish," KyloRen insisted. "I happen to have the chat server and password for The Resistance."

The guild had just successfully fought the Sarlacc, the second to last boss in the dungeon. It was a complicated fight that required the raid group to split into two teams. One of the teams fought on a large airship to destroy a Hutt, which was a beast that the guild all agreed looked like an enormous pile of poop.

The other team used a precarious system of floating platforms to damage the Sarlacc, a giant sand worm, without falling into its gaping maw. Furthermore, there was the issue of the blindness debuff that required whoever had it to switch between the airship and the floating platforms to avoid spreading it to others.

Due to the split, Hux agreed to let Ben co-lead the raid with him, with Hux commanding the Sarlacc team and Ben giving instructions to the Hutt team. After the boss was defeated, Hux typed a whisper to KyloRen and deleted it before pressing send. _Thank you for your help. You're a good co-leader._

Instead, he addressed the guild. "Good progress tonight, team. I appreciate you all dedicating your week to raiding. We need to stay on target though, because there's no way to know how close other guilds are to completing the dungeon."

"I know a way," said KyloRen. "We log into their voice chat servers."

Hux scoffed. "Yeah, that's reasonable. Let's guess the server names and passwords of our rivals and just log in." KyloRen had only been speaking for two nights, and already Hux was sick of hearing his sultry, deep voice. _No, sultry is not the word you're looking for. You hate him, remember?_

"Let me finish," KyloRen insisted. "I happen to have the chat server and password for The Resistance."

Hux sputtered. "What? How did you –"

KyloRen's tone was smug as he explained, "My cousin's in that guild, and she has a habit of covering the walls of her room in sticky notes."

"Good," said Snoke in his rasping voice. "Then we will crush them once and for all. General, help KyloRen hack that chat server."

On the tip of Hux's tongue was a quip about how, technically, it couldn't be considered hacking because they had the password, but Snoke had already logged off. There was a loud guffaw that was abruptly cut off as Phasma muted her mic. A moment later, Hux's phone buzzed to notify him of a new text message.

Nicole: I told you snoke ships it!!

Hux: You can go fuck right off into the rubbish bin.

Then Hux received a separate text notification from a number he didn't recognize. Upon opening the conversation, he saw that he had previously texted "Tacodana, noon tomorrow." It was KyloRen's – _Ben's_ – number. Hux's heart gave a tiny flutter.

Ben: im coming over

Ben: need ur address

Hux: Due to personal reasons or orders from Snoke?

When Ben didn't reply, Hux sent his address anyway.

 _Tonight had been going so well_ , he thought as he buried his face in his hands and whimpered.

* * *

 

Hux sat in his home office, a bottle of wine and two glasses on his computer desk. One of the glasses was half-filled. His doorbell rang twice in a row, prompting him to gulp down the remainder of his glass. Before he could reach the door, whoever it was started knocking insistently, startling Millicent, who scampered under the coffee table.

"Who is it?" Hux asked as he reached the door. He didn't have to ask. He could tell who it was by the silhouette and the impatience.

"Someone who hates you," came the growled reply. Hux sucked in a deep breath and pasted a smile on his face that he hoped looked like a sneer before opening his front door for Ben. He was annoyed that the sight of the towering man in his motorcycle helmet and trench coat had somehow become familiar.

Ben used his enormous shoulders to bump Hux out of the doorway as he entered unbidden. Hux grabbed Ben's forearm and whirled the larger man around to face him. "Take off your shoes," he commanded.

There was a moment of tense silence as Ben stared at Hux through the darkened plastic pane of his helmet. Then, slowly, Ben bent down to remove his tall boots. He made no move to take off his backpack, helmet, or coat.

"Aren't you going to take off that ridiculous helmet?" Hux scoffed.

"You're awfully eager to get my clothes off," teased Ben in a deep baritone. Hux felt shivers of excitement run down his traitorous body and hoped his face was a solid mask of contempt.

"Fine. Keep it on. I don't care," Hux said, stepping past his visitor to lead the way into his office. He topped off both glasses with wine and turned to see if Ben had followed.

Hux tried and failed to hold in a gasp as he saw Ben leaning against the office door frame. The other man had removed his helmet and coat to reveal raven hair tied up in a messy bun and a loose black tank top that showed off his muscular arms. He also wore a smug expression, as if he knew exactly what he was doing to Hux.

"Would you care for some wine?" Hux enunciated while carefully looking Ben only in the eyes.

"No. I brought some whiskey." Reaching into his backpack, which was absurdly covered in Darth Vader buttons and patches, Ben pulled out a bottle of Jack Daniel's and a case of cherry cola.

“You’re a Darth Vader fan, I see,” Hux remarked as he painstakingly averted his eyes from Ben’s biceps.

“Yeah, he’s my favorite _Astral Strife_ faction leader,” Ben replied excitedly.

Hux hummed noncommittally. “I prefer Grand Moff Tarkin.”

The two of them huddled in front of Hux's gaming rig. Hux sat in his leather chair, and Ben hunched over him, close enough so his long hair occasionally brushed against Hux's shoulder as he leaned forward. _Focus_ , Hux commanded himself. He swallowed with some degree of difficulty.

"Why couldn't you have done this yourself?" Hux asked with as much disdain as he could manage, trying desperately to defuse the intimacy of the situation.

"Snoke told you to help me."

"You have the password. All you have to do is log in."

"And say what? Hi Rey, it's your cousin Ben, and I'm here to spy on your guild?"

"Fair point. I have a solution to that. If you go into the data file that stores your login info, there's a line you can change that prevents other people from seeing that you're logged into the voice chat server." Hux opened some folders, typed something into a text editor, and opened the voice chat client. "There, easy. Now type in the server name and password. No one will even know we're there."

"Mmm..." said Ben. "I love it when you talk nerdy."

 _What is he doing?_ thought Hux. _Is he sniffing my neck?_ He fought the urge to lean back into Ben's warm body. Then, without warning, Ben was embracing him from behind, his thick arms wrapped around Hux's narrow shoulders. There was a moment of panic – and ecstasy, which Hux tried to ignore – before he realized that the larger man had only leaned over to use the keyboard, as Hux had instructed him to do moments before.

"There. I'm in." Hux felt Ben's voice as a low rumble through his body more than he heard it.

 _If he's done typing, why isn't he moving?_ Hux allowed himself the slightest bit of hope that Ben was enjoying the actual contact, as opposed to simply teasing Hux. His mouth started feeling very dry. He cleared his throat, reached across Ben's arm for the wine glass, and took a large gulp. "Oh, my headset is still plugged in." Hux's voice sounded shaky.

He unplugged the headset, and they immediately caught the end of an interesting conversation.

"… and Rey on the blast doors. This is the last attempt for tonight, so let's make it count! And don't forget to –"

"We know, Poe, have fun. God, you're such a nerd." That was unmistakably EightSeven's voice. _That traitor_ , Hux thought bitterly, trying not to let it distract him from the conversation. The First Order hadn't yet encountered a boss fight that involved blast doors. That meant that The Resistance was already on the final boss of the dungeon!

Hux was only able to breathe shallowly as he listened to his rivals attempt the boss fight. If they succeeded, it would all be over, and Starkiller would be theirs. If they failed, it was very important that Hux retain the strategic knowledge and use it to The First Order's advantage the following day.

"Here they come! Testor and Ello, you know what to do. DPS down Kanjiklub first, then Guavians if we have time before the Rathtar." It was the voice that EightSeven had called Poe, clearly their raid leader.

"Incoming Rathtar!" said a different, higher-pitched voice. Ben perked up.

"That's my cousin Rey," he explained. Hux waved a hand dismissively and continued focusing his attention fully on the voice chat.

"I've got Rathtar." That was EightSeven, which confused Hux slightly. EightSeven was an archer, and from what Hux could tell from The Resistance's chat, this "Rathtar" was the final boss. Why would they have an archer and not a tank pull aggro on the boss?

"Close door one," said EightSeven.

"Door one closed," announced Rey.

"Fuck, he's got me!" EightSeven shouted.

"I'll get you with my chain gun," said Poe, the raid leader. "On my count, close blast door two in three... two... one... and close!" There were several loud whoops from the chat, and Hux assumed that the blast door had closed and successfully rescued EightSeven from the Rathtar. "All right," continued Poe. "Poison gas, then when the doors open, DPS until the debuff wears off."

"Shit!" came a new voice. "Ello went down. I need Testor to pick up the remaining Guavians while I res him." Hearing his rival guild's misfortune brought a subconscious smile to Hux's face.

"I'm on it," said a voice that was probably Testor.

"Finn, I can't close door one. It's on cooldown. Take it through another set of doors." Rey again.

"Through the adds?" asked EightSeven. Apparently his name was Finn, though Hux had never bothered asking because he called his guild by their in-game names. Despite both being high-end raiding guilds, The First Order and The Resistance were quite different from one another. Beyond the names, Hux also rarely allowed other players to talk in voice chat. He typically called all the shots as the raid leader.

"It's the best choice, Finn. Just try it," said Rey.

"Okay," said Finn reluctantly. "For the record, I don't think this will work."

It didn't work. From the sound of it, their healer suffered a death by Rathtar, causing the tank to die, causing adds to run everywhere and assist the Rathtar in wiping out the party. Hux braced himself to listen to yelling and finger-pointing, but it seemed The Resistance was different in this regard too.

Poe was downright cordial. "Good attempt, buddies. We'll call it for the night. Get some sleep, go party, whatever. We'll pick it up again tomorrow."

"Good night, babe," said EightSeven.

"Get a room, you guys," teased Rey. "Don't you live together anyway? Take your flirting off of voice chat."

Suddenly, it made a lot more sense to Hux why EightSeven had left The First Order. Apparently he had joined up with his boyfriend's guild. The pleasantries and goodbyes extended for another couple of minutes, and then, one by one, all the members of The Resistance left voice chat.

When all was silent, Hux realized that he was clutching very tightly at Ben's hand. Ben had moved to the floor, sitting cross-legged next to Hux's chair and leaning against it. "A DPS tanking..." Hux murmured. "Poison gas and blast doors and adds." He released Ben's hand and scribbled some notes onto a pad of paper that he kept on his desk for these occasions.

Hux beamed with pride as he called Snoke to relay their new findings. Snoke was not one for praise. "Go. Oversee preparations," he instructed before hanging up, leaving Hux to wonder if perhaps he was displeased.

"Don't worry about it," said Ben. "He's always like that."

"Now where were we?" asked Hux. He summoned his courage, with substantial help from the bottle of wine that he had somehow downed by himself, and stroked Ben's soft hair.

"I will not be seduced," said Ben, removing Hux's hand and gently, slowly licking each of Hux's fingers.

"Oh? Then what are you doing now?"

" _I'm_ seducing _you_."

"Fair enough." Hux leaned down and kissed Ben on those full lips that he had been craving since the first time he'd set eyes on him.

The two of them stumbled their way into Hux's bedroom. Hux pressed Ben against the wall and nibbled at the other man's earlobe. "Remember our first date?" he whispered, his lips gently brushing against Ben's ear. This earned him a little sound that could have been agreement or a moan of pleasure. "You said I'd have your ass if you were late," Hux continued slyly. "Well... you were late."


	7. Starkiller

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Why are you still here?" Hux rasped.
> 
> "I'm making breakfast tacos," Ben explained as if it made perfect sense. “I figured I owed you tacos.”

It was the pain that woke Hux. In his sleep, he had dug his fingernails so hard into his palms that he was bleeding. He also had an overwhelming headache, and his mouth felt dry as a desert. Ben was nowhere to be seen, and Hux was grateful that he didn't have to deal with the aftermath of his one-night stand as well as his hangover.

He stumbled to the bathroom, rinsed the blood off his hands, and wrapped them in clean gauze. Hux was experienced in dealing with this particular injury, and it no longer fazed him. Digging his nails into his palms was a stress response, and the hurricane of events in the past few days had certainly been stressful.

Clutching the bathroom sink to remain upright, Hux silently cursed his past self for the hangover and resolved to get a glass of water from the kitchen. He struggled into the boxers and jeans that had been haphazardly thrown on the floor during the previous night's encounter and left his room, taking slow, shuffling steps and leaning heavily against the wall.

"Good morning, beautiful," came a rich voice from the kitchen.

Hux froze. He was not expecting Ben to have stayed, and he certainly was not expecting Ben to be bent over the stove, cooking something while Millicent happily twined about his ankles. Whatever it was, it smelled delicious, and Hux's stomach growled in appreciation. He continued to approach.

"You didn't have much food in the house," said Ben. "So I went to the grocery store down the street."

"Why are you still here?" Hux rasped.

"I'm making breakfast tacos," Ben explained as if it made perfect sense. “I figured I owed you tacos.”

Hux's head started to swim from a combination of the hangover and his confusion. He opted to slowly lower himself to the sleek black tile.

Ben immediately left the stove and rushed over. "Careful, Hux," he said, gripping the redhead by the arm. "Let me get you some water." Hux nodded while trying not to jostle his head too much. Ben's eyes went to Hux's hands, and he frowned. "What happened to your hands?"

Hux waved him off. "It's a thing I do. Don't worry about it." Ben didn't seem satisfied with the answer, but he went off to rifle through Hux's cabinets for a glass and fill it with water.

As Hux sat on the floor of his kitchen nursing his hangover and watching Ben cook breakfast tacos, he wondered what had caused such a drastic change in the nature of their relationship.

"I like you better like this," Ben said, still facing the stove. Hux had the uncanny feeling that the other man was peering inside his mind, even though that was impossible.

"Like what?" Hux snorted. "Hungover so you can gloat at my misfortune?"

"No," Ben replied softly while shaking his head, causing his long, dark locks to brush gently against his broad shoulders. "Human."

"What's _that_ supposed to mean?" Hux was unable to muster up a proper tone of indignation.

Ben changed the subject. "Do you know how intimidating you are? You have everything figured out, and I'm not just talking about in-game. I Googled you and found your LinkedIn page. Francis Hux, Director of Engineering."

"I hate that name," Hux protested. "Just Hux will do."

Ben continued talking, ignoring or just pretending to ignore Hux's comment. "I'm just a nobody, so I thought..." he trailed off.

Hux reached out to take Ben's hand. "You're not a nobody. You're a great tank." Ben rolled his eyes in response but kept holding Hux's hand.

Ben's backpack and portable shrine to Darth Vader was surprisingly large. It held Ben's gaming laptop and a change of clothes, and Hux wondered if the other man had been planning on staying the night. Either way, it was convenient.

After Ben nursed Hux back into a reasonable semblance of his usual self, the two cuddled on the couch and waited for raid time. Ben pulled a flat, rectangular box of out his backpack. “Can I show you something?” he asked.

Hux started to nod, felt slightly nauseous, and decided to hold his head steady. “What is it?”

“It’s a prototype of a card game I’ve been working on. I call it _Days of Glorbin_ ,” Ben said eagerly, opening the box and spreading its contents out on the coffee table. Each card was some sort of mythological beast or monster painstakingly hand-drawn in black ink. Hux was so absorbed in admiring the beautiful details that he missed the first part of Ben’s explanation about the game’s rules, but Ben only continued grinning brightly as he went over them again.

They played a few rounds, discussing possible minor tweaks while Hux took his usual fastidious notes. More often than not, their fingers brushed together gently as they reached for the cards. “It’s quite good,” Hux remarked genuinely.

Ben blushed and ducked his head. He glanced up at Hux shyly. “You really think so?”

“Yes. In fact, I’d be happy to help you fund production, but you’d have to change the name.”

* * *

 

Hux explained the raid as best as he could from the notes he took the previous night. He sighed as he realized that the majority of them were illegible scribbles. _If I could talk to my past self, I'd tell him not to drink too much_ , Hux thought. _Actually_ , he corrected with a glance at the beautiful, dark-haired man who was hunched in front of his laptop, which was placed on an end table that he had dragged in from the living room, _if I could talk to my past self, I'd tell him to kiss Ben on the first date_.

The Rathtar turned out to be a large, tentacled beast reminiscent of the Flying Spaghetti Monster. Hux chose to be the unlucky damage dealer who had to tank the Rathtar and found himself regretting it after several deaths.

After the first death, Hux figured out that he wasn't supposed to actually tank the Rathtar. Instead, he was supposed to kite it around the enclosed space and try to trap it between blast doors. The second death was when he was crushed by a poorly-timed blast door. The third death occurred almost exactly like EightSeven's death the previous night.

Hux had finally gotten the hang of kiting the boss when he was forced to run through the section where Phasma and KyloRen were tanking Kanjiklub and the Guavians. He watched in amazement as the Rathtar tore through the adds, a small smirk on his face as he realized how to use the boss fight's own adds to make the fight easier.

Their fourth attempt was the most successful by far. Phasma and KyloRen focused on simply tanking the Guavians and Kanjiklub but keeping as many alive as possible. After the first poison gas, Hux deliberately allowed the Rathtar to feast on Kanjiklub, buying him some precious seconds to maneuver toward the second set of blast doors. The plan was going without a hitch, and the health of the Rathtar was quickly declining. Then, a message popped up on his screen that made Hux's blood run cold.

Server: The Resistance has completed Hosnian Prime. Congratulations!

Even as Hux cried "No!" into his headset, he heard a roar of anguish and a loud crashing sound from behind him. Ben had angrily flung his laptop onto the floor, and it now sat in two separate pieces. Obviously he was no longer online, which caused the adds to quickly overrun the area and wipe the group.

"Where is KyloRen?" asked Snoke.

As Hux attempted to answer, a sickening crunch was heard over Ben's screams, and he turned to find that the other man had ripped one of the legs off of his end table and was using it to beat the rest of the table into splinters.

"What the fuck are you doing, Ben?" Hux shouted, forgetting that his headset was still on. Voice chat erupted in pandemonium. On the one hand, Snoke was upset about their loss. On the other hand, everyone in the guild was confused about whether to proceed with the raid after The Resistance had already won the race and the Starkiller weapon. On the other _other_ hand, which was more than possible for Rathtars or overwhelming situations like this one, Hux's friends Nicole and Dopheld were cheekily inquiring why Ben was over at Hux's house.

"I have to go. Raid's over," said Hux, taking his headset off and setting it on his desk with finality. He marched over to Ben and grabbed his arm.

Ben whirled around to face Hux. The larger man's eyes were filled with a terrifying rage. His mouth was set in a snarl. Tears streamed down his cheeks. "Ben," Hux said softly.

"I've failed." Ben could barely choke out the short sentence.

"Ben."

"I'm a failure."

"Ben." This time, Hux's voice was insistent. He gathered his courage and made the instant decision to wrap his arms around Ben's muscular frame. He felt the other man tense, and for a short moment, he was afraid he would get thrown out of the way. Then, Ben sagged to a kneeling position on the floor.

"Thank you," said Ben, his voice cracking.

"Of course," Hux whispered as he gently kissed the top of Ben's head.

After a moment of comfortable silence, Ben spoke. "Hux?" Hux had buried his face in Ben's soft hair and could only reply with a quiet hum. "What are we?"

"Well," Hux responded thoughtfully as he rested his chin on Ben's head, "in the past four days, we went on one good date and one terrible date. Then we slept together, and you wrecked my house. I'd say we're practically married." That remark earned a wet-sounding snort from Ben.

"Wow, Hux, moving kind of fast there," Ben said teasingly.

"You'll be thirty soon," Hux reminded him. "Then you'll know what it's like to be old and desperate."

"No, I won't," protested Ben. "I'll have you."

For once, Hux was at a loss for words. Even his normally overactive mind was silent, soaking in the blissful knowledge that someone envisioned a future with him. They remained on the floor for an eternity, holding tightly to one another amidst the wreckage.

Finally, Hux spoke. "Ben, I should tell you that I don't hate you, not entirely."

"I know."

“You still owe me an end table, though.”

**Author's Note:**

> This entire experience has been immensely enjoyable! I've met so many awesome people due to the chat parties. 
> 
> Special thank-yous to:  
> \- My amazing artist [allantiee](http://allantieeart.tumblr.com/)  
> \- The mods, [Alley](http://that-vicious-vixen.tumblr.com/), [Nat](http://nat-fic.tumblr.com/), and [Kota](http://tentayena.tumblr.com/), for their hard work putting everything together  
> \- My spouse for editing my story and putting up with me being a Kylux shipper


End file.
